Fencing Sport Safety Blade

ABSTRACT

Creating a beveled edge on a traditionally manufactured sport fencing blade—especially on a sabre blade tip—changes the structure of such a blade&#39;s “angle of incidence”, thereby resulting in a safer blade that is less apt to cause injury by piercing a fencer&#39;s protective uniform.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/404,741 filed Oct. 5, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE DEVICE

The device of this disclosure relates to a new, unobvious and innovative safety blade for the sport of fencing which affords far superior protection to fencers in comparison with traditionally produced blades, while requiring only the slightest increase in manufacturing costs and efforts.

Weapon blades in the sport of fencing are produced in three primary types, Foil, Epee and Sabre, in both “electric” form for electronic scoring in competition, and in “dry”, non-electrified form exclusively for practice use. Conventional sport fencing blades are well-known in the art because they have become substantially standardized worldwide during the approximately five-decade history of modern competitive fencing. In fact, in comparison with most any other sport having a such a substantial amount of equipment, there have been very few innovations relating to the sport of fencing in general, and of those paltry few innovations, only a negligible number relate to weaponry. The reason for this is partly due to the historical failure of the leadership of worldwide fencing sport governance to encourage and embrace technological changes, the type of changes which many believe would enhance the sport.

Precious few innovations relating to the enhancement of blade performance and/or safety have ever been the subject of a filed patent, patent literature or any publication or other disclosure anywhere in the world, and this is unfortunate considering the potential dangers inherent in a sport which depends on weaponry as a primary component of its equipment. Given the relatively high frequency of blade failure and injury to fencers resulting from blade strikes, it is rather astonishing that so few efforts to innovate blade enhancements have ever been contemplated and/or undertaken. It is apparent that almost all the members of the fencing community, instead, sheepishly elect merely to acquiesce to the prevailing fencing rules and to accept fencing leadership-mandated equipment regulations, the risks inherent in which subject fencers to an unnecessarily high degree of prospective harm. The potential for harm is quite real and considerable since fencing blades regularly break—and reasonably so, given the rigorous impacts to which blades are constantly exposed both during practice and in competition. It may be attributed only to sheer luck (otherwise it may be perceived as a testament to fencer skill) that more—and more severe—injuries do not occur annually throughout the world.

The fact that over the past five decades, technological change has been very slow within the modern incarnation of this ancient sport, compels the conclusion that both the international governing body of fencing and the manufacturers/retailers of fencing blades have relegated safety concerns to the position of a “secondary afterthought”. Had blade manufacturers and retailers, in conjunction with those with the authority to approve blades for competition, all considered safety to be an insufficiently addressed concern, they certainly would have made efforts to encourage safety innovations in all aspects of the sport and most particularly in regard to blade safety, given that blades—rather than sneakers, for instance—are more likely to be instruments responsible for injuries. It should be noted that no awards or competitions have existed or currently exist to promote innovations in fencing safety, let alone blade safety specifically. This teaching away from encouraging innovation may reasonably be interpreted to mean that current standards in blade safety have been deemed “acceptable”, and this accounts for the dearth of prior art which could pertain to sport fencing blade design, and supports the contention of the novelty and unobviousness of the innovation of this disclosure.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE DEVICE

The device of this disclosure is a new, novel and unobvious sport fencing blade technology intended to reduce fencing injuries through a structural design for a blade that is less apt to pierce the protective clothing worn by fencers. One unfamiliar with the sport of fencing might imagine that the preponderance of sport fencing injuries across the globe result from injuries due to broken blades. While such a belief would be reasonable due to the romanticized version of swordplay as portrayed in motion pictures worldwide, it would, nevertheless, be erroneous. Indeed, while it is true that broken blades do, in fact, cause fencing injuries, the overwhelming majority of fencing wounds actually result from the blade tips of opponents' weapons piercing a fencer's protective clothing, known in fencing parlance as the “uniform.”

In 2015, in recognition of the prospective danger of uniform-piercing by sabre blades, the governing fencing body in the USA, the USFA, mandated that all competition gloves be upgraded from the 350-“newton” protective level to an 800-newton protective level so that sabre fencers' hands and arms would be afforded superior protection from prospective piercing by an opponent's weapon. This rules-change was intended to enhance the safety of the sport and is uncharacteristic. Despite the fencing community leadership's commendable recognition of the potential dangers posed by the piercing of uniforms by conventional blades, worldwide efforts to make fencing safer can reasonably be characterized as “insufficient” as of the time of this filing.

The innovation of this disclosure reveals a significant enhancement to fencing safety. Research related to the innovation of this disclosure establishes a heretofore unanticipated result: beveled edges on a sport fencing blade tip reduce the angle of incidence of traditional blades whose sides and tips traditionally form 90-degree angles. In contrast to traditional blades which lack any beveling, by creating beveling on the edges of a weapon's tip, the chances for a bodily wound to be inflicted as a result of an incisive puncture a fencer's uniform upon the landing of a successful blade strike are substantially reduced.

One object of this disclosure is to introduce an innovation in the sport of fencing which will make blades safer and thereby will reduce the number of fencing injuries.

Yet another object is to introduce an apparatus that can be produced with only minimal changes to conventional manufacturing procedures.

Yet still another object of this disclosure is to introduce an improved apparatus that doesn't require substantial—if any—changes to the traditional assembly and use of conventional weapons in the sport of fencing.

Yet another, further object is to introduce an apparatus that can be sold inexpensively;

Yet a still further object is to introduce a replaceable tip which can be added onto blade.

There are a multitude of possible manufacturable embodiments in relation to the innovation of this disclosure, some of which will be presented in greater detail below. This invention is novel. While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only. It may be appreciated and understood that many changes and modification of the invention as described herein may be made by a person skilled in the art to which this subject matter pertains without substantially deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention and of the following claims. As the preferred embodiment is capable of variation, addition, omission and modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, consequently, it is not the intention of the applicant to limit this invention to those modes and embodiments of the invention shown or described above. Protection is desired for all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1—Discloses an illustration of a perspective side view of a conventional sabre tip having safety enhancing beveled side edges.

FIG. 2—Discloses an illustration of a top-down view a conventional sabre blade tip having beveled side edges.

FIG. 3—Discloses an illustration of a top view of a conventional sabre blade tip having beveled side edges that are convexly rounded.

FIG. 4—Discloses a technical illustration of a side view of a conventional sabre tip having beveled side edges.

FIG. 5—Discloses a perspective illustration of a separate beveled safety tip fitted over a tipless, conventional, rectangular blade which gets inserted into a cavity that is formed within the safety tip.

FIG. 6—Discloses a perspective illustration of a conventional sabre tip having beveled side edges and also three bevels on the tip exterior surface.

FIG. 7—Discloses an illustration of a top-down view of a conventional sabre blade tip having beveled side edges and also three bevels on the tip exterior surface.

FIG. 8—Discloses a perspective illustration of a sabre tip having beveled side edges and also rounded tip sides that bow-out from the tip as the tip is solid and not hollow as in the traditional structure.

FIG. 9—Discloses an illustration of a top-down view of an embodiment of FIG. 8 wherein the tip is substantially globe-like, having partially beveled sides which are substantially circumferential.

FIG. 10—Discloses a technical illustration of perspective view of a sabre tip having beveled side edges and also flat sides that are solid in contrast to the structure of a conventional sabre blade tip.

FIG. 11—Discloses an illustration of a perspective side view of a conventional sabre tip having safety enhancing beveled side edges, and which is approximately oriented facing in the conventional position that a fencer would adopt in an “en garde” position just prior to starting a fencing bout.

FIG. 12—Discloses an illustration of a perspective view of a conventional fencing sabre blade tip having beveling between the top and side surfaces, and prior to inversional bending into a conventional sabre fencing blade.

FIG. 13—Discloses an illustration of a perspective view of a conventional fencing sabre blade tip having beveling between the top and side surfaces and also beveling between the bottom and side surfaces and prior to inversional bending into a conventional sabre fencing blade.

FIG. 14—Discloses an illustration of a perspective view of approximately half a conventional fencing sabre blade starting from its hilt.

Blade Bottom Surface 20 Attached Cover-Tip Bottom Surface 21 Blade Side Surface 22 First Blade Beveled Edge 24 Second Blade Beveled Edge 26 Tip Face 28 Blade Top Surface 30 Blade Side Surface 32 First Tip Face Bevel 34 Second Tip Face Bevel 36 Rounded Bevel 40 Unbent Tip Face 42 Third Blade Beveled Edge 44 Fourth Blade Beveled Edge 46 Rod 50 Rod Hilt 52

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a preferred embodiment, a conventional blade is produced, typically from a steel Rod 50. Prior to any “finishing”, such as colorizing or coating being administered to Rod 50, and also prior to the “inwards” or “backwards” bending of Tip Face 28 so that Tip Face 28 comes into substantially is parallel planar contact with Blade Bottom 20 (thereby forming its traditionally rounded structural shape), the ninety-degree angulated edges formed by the meeting of Blade Top Surface 30 and the opposing two sides designated as Blade Side Surface 22 and Blade Side Surface 32 are ground or shaved-down using conventional grinding/shaving machinery known in the art, thereby forming a preferably (but not necessarily) a 45-degree angled Blade Bevel Edge 24. The degree/extent of the grinding ultimately will be regulated by the fencing community's competitive governing authority(ies).

The “tip” of Rod 50 is identified by referencing Rod Hilt 52 (to which a conventional handle is attached in a traditional manner), and thereafter locating the end opposite to that of Rod Hilt 52. Since on a conventional sabre fencing blade, the engineering of Rod Hilt 52 exhibits a Top Surface 30 and a Bottom Surface 20 for the convenience of fitting Rod 52 into a conventional handle, the tip of Rod 50 also, necessarily presents a Blade Top Surface 30 and a Blade Bottom Surface 20.

Optimally, Blade Beveled Edges 24 and 26 (created on sides opposite to each other) should start at Tip Face 28 and should extend towards Rod Hilt 52 for a distance of approximately one inch. (Although it is certainly possible to grind down a portion of the tip greater than one inch, as-yet to be established fencing regulations will ultimately dictate rules regulating beveling distance.) The administration of such beveling on a sabre blade serves to reduce the angle of incidence from the degree which has historically been exhibited on unbeveled sabre blades.

Upon the successful creation of Blade Beveled Edges 24 and 26, Tip Face 28 is conventionally bent “inwards” or “backwards” in a conventional manner well-known in the art so that Tip Face 28 comes into substantially parallel planar contact with Blade Bottom 20. During a conventional grinding process to administer Blade Beveled Edges 24 and 26, Rod 50 can be held by human hands, or a process may be implemented so that a multitude of Rods 50 are “fed” into a holding vise as part of a robotic arm that can grip a Rod 50 for automatic presentation to a grinding wheel. Depending on the speed of the grinding wheel and coarseness of its abrasive surface, the time to administer Blade Beveled Edges 24 and 26 may vary from approximately three seconds to fractions of a second.

After edge-beveling has been accomplished, conventional processing of a blade may be accomplished in a manner known to one skilled in the art, which may include, for instance, anodizing. The dexterity of the control exerted over the grinding process which imparts the edge-beveling onto the tip of Rod 50 should be such that the beveled angle should be smooth, steady, and constant in order to provide for a uniform beveling that produces Beveled Edges 24 and 26.

Alternate Embodiment

In an alternate embodiment, Blade Bevel Edges 24 and 26 are generated on Rod 50 subsequent to the bending of Unbent Tip Face 42 which results in the formation of Blade Tip Face 28. 

I claim:
 1. A fencing blade, comprising: an elongated rod-like element having an end designated as the “hilt” suitable for engagement with a handle; on said elongated rod-like element, at least a second end positioned opposite to said hilt and designated as the “tip”, having at least a top surface, a bottom surface, a first side surface, a second side surface, and a face surface, wherein said at least a top surface is substantially perpendicular to said at least a first and a second side surfaces; beveling of the adjacent angles on said tip formed by the intersection between said top surface and said opposingly-positioned said first and second side surfaces; inverse bending of said tip so that said tip face surface is substantially in parallel contact with said tip bottom surface;
 2. The fencing blade of claim 1, wherein: said elongated rod is made of steel; said beveling is at an angle measuring 45 degrees;
 3. A fencing blade, comprising: an elongated rod-like element having a “hilt” end suitable for engagement with a handle; on said elongated rod-like element, at least a second “tip” end positioned opposite to said hilt and having at least a top surface, a bottom surface and a face surface; rounded beveling of the point of intersection between said top surface and said bottom surface; inverse bending of said tip so that said tip face surface is substantially in parallel contact with said tip bottom surface; 